As a boy in the late 1940s, Federico “Fred” Saldaña picked cotton, shined shoes, delivered ice and played traditional Mexican songs for small change at cantinas near Raymondville in the Rio Grande Valley.

As one of 12 children, picking cotton was a given. But playing the guitar and singing he picked up from his fun-loving father, Ernestino.

But it's the flea-market vibe that really suits Saldaña. “Older people, like me, go. They really have fun,” he said. “They enjoy our music. We really have big crowds. We start playing and they get up and dance. We make a lot of friends.”